What is the Qur'an?
The Qur'an is the Arabic Speech of Allah, which He revealed to His last Prophet, Muhammad (s.a.w) in words and in meaning. The Qur'an is preserved in the mushaf and it reached us by mutawatir transmissions. The Qur'an is a challenge for humankind to produce something like it.
The Qur'an is derived from three sets of root letters:
(a) qa ra a - means to read or recite, aloud, repeatedly
(b) qa ra na - means to join or associate, or that which is joined together. The Qur'an is a combination of verse and chapters, themes and lessons.
(c) qa ra in - means to resemble or to be similar. The verses of the Qur'an aid one another in meaning. Every part of Qur'an compliments its other parts. If joined, it explains the meanings and enhances its value. The message of the Qur'an is similar to the previous scriptures (the Qur'an summarizes and confirms the truth which remains in the previous scriptures)
Topics discussed in the Qur'an:
(a) Commands -the principal of life, the righteous acts of worship, the rules of engagement and good conduct is outlined in the Qur'an for the guidance of humanity
(b) dialogue with non-Muslims -Various factions and denominations of religions are discussed and an overwhelming amount of evidence and arguments is presented to guide people to Islam (submission to the will of the One True Creator of this Universe). Doubts are cleared, misconceptions are answered. Wisdom behind Islamic beliefs and practices is explicated.
(c)Reminders of Allah's favours and blessings - Through which we can realize Allah's Greatness and Generosity. He created the universe, sent down rain, caused water to flow from springs and meadows, originated a variety of fruits and flowers, buried treasures and resources under the earth. Gave life to our family and friends. Bequeathed us with health and intellect. Blessed us with Prophets and Divine Revelation. Realization of Allah's favours upon us should redefine our thoughts, humble us and make us grateful, silent (prevent us from speaking in vain), serious (make us reflective and observant), kind (to Allah's creation) and caution (from sinning).
(d) History of the Day of Allah - Periods in time pertaining to the punishment of past nations, i.e. the great flood of Nuh (a.s), the great storm of Lut (a.s), the drownign of Pharaoh etc. These are warnings for us to heed. When we see that the past civilizations were wiped out from the face of the earth, despite their success and prosperity, we should fix our attitude and correct our belief regarding Allah. A person can be at the pinnacle fo his youth or career but if he/she disobeys Allah and causes aggression upon the earth, Allah has the power to remove him and replace him with a humble and peaceful human being. This history encourages us to leave sin, repent and redeem ourselves.
(e) Proclamation of death and events after death - the condition of death, helplessness, the last breath, the falling unconscious, going numb and taking out of the soul, description of Hellfire and Heaven, encouraging angels of punishment and mercy - are vividly described in the Qur'an in extensive detail. This gives readers understanding of the purpose of life and visualize the Day of Judgment (final destination) before actually seeing and experiencing it.
Thomas Carlyle lived in 1975. He studied law, literature, history and many languages. About the Qur'an he said, "As you read the Qur'an, you will realize it is not an ordinary store of literature. The Qur'an is a work of art that springs from teh heart. All other works of art are dull when compared to this Qur'an, this tremendous masterpiece. The most striking character of the Qur'an is that it is a truthful and excellent guide, to me, this is the greatest merit and it begets other merits."
Monday, December 27, 2010
Friday, December 17, 2010
My Open Letter to Allah
O Allah, because I believe in You, I love You, fear You, learn more about You, depend on You, read the Qur'an and worship You. O Allah, You are the Giver of life and all blessings in life. The Merciful. O Allah, you are truly the Rabb. You created the heavens, the universe and the earth. You own them.
O Allah, I thank you for all Your uncountable favours upon me and my family. You gave me a loving family. Most importantly you gave me a Muslim family. You have made my work a little easier.
O Allah, please forgive my sins. I make duaa to you O Allah. I ask You for Your love and approval. Make me the best Muslim. O Allah, give me a good life in this duniya and the akhirah.
Please help those in the world that are in need. O Allah, help me friend's grandmother. She is very sick aameen.
Hazim, Grade 4O Allah, because I believe I believe in You, I know that I will be the best I can be for Your sake. Whatever loss I get, I know it is for a reason. you know what is best for me because You created me and You love me more than 70 mothers, and I love You too! I am so small and so insignificant compared to You and still You are kind and merciful to me, I love You Allah!
O Allah, You make me very happy and thankful because of everything You gave me. I know that no one can bless me or remove Your blessing from me except You. You have given me so many gifts which others do not have and save me from so much harm. O Allah I am grateful to You sincerely. O Allah make me generous so I can share Your favours upon me with others.
O Allah, my Lord, I want to follow all your commands because You ordered me that which is beneficial for me. O Allah guide me to the straight path so I can become your true servant. My Rabb, help me to please you in the best of ways and hep me to teach others to do the same aameen.
Ayesha - Grade 4O Allah, because I believe in You I want to be a Muslim. Because You created me, and You provide for my every need, I love You. I acknowledge and I am thankful for all Your blessings upon me. I am especially grateful for blessing me with Islam as my religion and the Qur'an as the Book of my Guidance. I love the family You gave me. I also love the earth which You made so rich with colours and full of gifts
To please you is my priority; I live my life everyday for You Allah. When I am in trouble I turn to You Allah and I ask You alone. I only worship You. I am Your Slave, I obey Your commands. I praise You because You deserve all praise and glorification.
I begin all my work with Your Name. I trust with Your help everything difficulty becomes easy. I feel safe and secure because in Your protection nothing can harm me. Even when thing do not go as I plan I know that You are the Best of Planners and what You have decided for me is better than what I choose for myself.
You are the Ever-Living the Ever-Lasting. Your Knowledge of everything is complete and perfect. O Allah help me please You in this world and O Allah be pleased with me in the Hereafter. O Allah save me from the traps of Iblees and devoute me to knowledge and worship. O Allah help me learn and pass exams in AWIS. O Allah give all my brothers and sisters happiness and prosperity in both worlds.
Aqsa - Grade 4Thank You Allah for all Your countless blessings. The wealth, health, family, food and clothes You gave me and in return only asked me to worship You 5 times a day. You have taken care of me since the day I was born and You gave me Islam, Qur'an and teachers so that my life will be good and happy. O Allah please teach me all that I need to know in order to be a good Muslim and enable me to do deeds which make You happy. O Allah take care of my Hereafter too. I want a good ending to my life as well.
Imtisal, Grade 4
In the Name of Allah, the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful.
O Allah because I believe in You, I know that I will always believe in you and obey all Your commands. Whenever I need, I call for Your help and I make du'a to You. Because You have all the power, I rely on You. You are trustworthy and the Only One Who understands me and knows me better than anyone. I am conscious of You whenever I act, I want to make You happy with all of my good deeds. I think of You and miss You of Allah. You are Forgiving and Merciful. Because You created me and everything in this world for my use and benefit, I love You and I am thankful to You. You have generously looked after all my needs. I remember when I was younger, I would struggle in math. I prayed to you a lot to make me smart in math and You help me. Now that I am older, I handle math easily. I feel so happy. You have taught me Allah. I am really thankful.
Sidrah - Grade 4
O Allah, because I believe in You, I know You will test me to see the level of my belief and commitment. But with each test, I will remember that for every good deed I do and for every time I am patient, You will reward me and bring me closer to You. i trust You Allah, everything You said in the Qur'an and every word Your Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w) spoke. Whenever I am afraid or in doubt, I will entrust the matter to You Allah. I know You have Knowledge of everything and everything is in Your control. Not a leaf can fall from a single tree without Your permission. No one can breathe or blink if You do not allow. Allah, despite having all this power, You are Kind and Merciful. You are all Forgiving. You wait day after day for the non-believers to to believe. You give them chance after chance, until some of them die. It is so sad, they die without realizing Allah is the Creator Who made them. Your religion, Islam, is mostly easy. There are many good deeds we can do easily. I will do them inshaAllah. And if there are difficulties, InshaAllah I will go through them too so I can please You. And at the end of the day, I will thank You for giving me this opportunity to be a Muslim, believe in You and be Good.
Shaheer, Grade 4
Surah al Fatiha – Reflection
This Surah is absolutely amazing and awesome. Its meaning touched the core of my heart. I cannot describe my joy and tell you how it feels to have learned Surah al Fatiha word for word. It is so deep. It is changed the way I offer Salah. When my mom calls me to pray and I run to talk to Allah.
This Surah summarizes the entire Qur’an, it brings me into a different zone. I feel I am alone with Allah and I imagine how it would be like to see Allah. I am so stunned and lost for words, I cannot explain how excited I am. I just wish everyone memorizes the meaning of Surah al Fatiha. These are the words of Allah. I think how much reward I will get now inshaAllah when I pray salah with understanding of this Surah. The knowledge of this Surah is so beautiful.
Shaheer - Grade 4
Saturday, December 4, 2010
DHUL-HIJJAH checklist (Parents Testimonial)
* This checklist is an excellent learning tool for children -- Mother of Aamna
* It is a very effective way to let the children know the importance of Hajj and Eid ul Adha -- Mother of Nabeeha
* In my opinion because of this checklist, my daughter tried to do these things as much as she could, not all of them but most of them. Alhamdulillah now she understand the importance of Dhul-Hijjah -- Mother of Hafs
* My son's Public School teacher is a Muslim but does not know how to read Arabic, so he gave her a copy of the Qur'an as the checklist suggested and she was very thankful. She said she'd cherish the gift. -- Mother of Huzaif
* This checklist helped my child to create islamic skills for every day use -- Mother of Sadya
* JazakAllahu khairan you did such a wonderful thing to make my son successful in duniya wal akhirah. -- Mother of Ali
* I am very thankful for encouraging students in becoming responsible through these checklist. It makes them committed and more responsible in developing these Islamic obligations -- Mother of Zafira.
* It is a very effective way to let the children know the importance of Hajj and Eid ul Adha -- Mother of Nabeeha
* In my opinion because of this checklist, my daughter tried to do these things as much as she could, not all of them but most of them. Alhamdulillah now she understand the importance of Dhul-Hijjah -- Mother of Hafs
* My son's Public School teacher is a Muslim but does not know how to read Arabic, so he gave her a copy of the Qur'an as the checklist suggested and she was very thankful. She said she'd cherish the gift. -- Mother of Huzaif
* This checklist helped my child to create islamic skills for every day use -- Mother of Sadya
* JazakAllahu khairan you did such a wonderful thing to make my son successful in duniya wal akhirah. -- Mother of Ali
* I am very thankful for encouraging students in becoming responsible through these checklist. It makes them committed and more responsible in developing these Islamic obligations -- Mother of Zafira.
Friday, December 3, 2010
Sirat al Mustaqeem
اهْدِنَا الصِّرَاطَ الْمُسْتَقِيمَ - "Guide us to the Straight Path" [Qur'an, 1:6]
How can we get to the straight path?
To explain this to you, I have an example. If you want to drive to the US and you don't know where to go, so you use your GPS. If you follow the instructions on that GPS then you will arrive at the US. But if you don't follow the instructions you will arrive maybe at Alaska. Just as you want to go to Heaven, you follow the Instructions that the Qur'an gives. But if you don't follow the instructions of the Qur'an, you will arrive at hell.
Hamna - Grade 3
How can we get to the straight path?
To explain this to you, I have an example. If you want to drive to the US and you don't know where to go, so you use your GPS. If you follow the instructions on that GPS then you will arrive at the US. But if you don't follow the instructions you will arrive maybe at Alaska. Just as you want to go to Heaven, you follow the Instructions that the Qur'an gives. But if you don't follow the instructions of the Qur'an, you will arrive at hell.
Hamna - Grade 3
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